The Border Collies

Jack

Subscribe Now

Disclosures

Unless specifically stated otherwise in the individual post, beginning Nov. 1, 2009, every book read and "reviewed" on Books 'N Border Collies was purchased for my private collection or came from the public library system.

I am an Amazon Associate and some of the links in posts do lead to Amazon.

NOTICE: (Updated March 5, 2010)

Beginning December 19, 2009, Books 'N Border Collies will be posting but only intermittently while I pursue personal goals. I plan to share some reading I'm doing, but there will be no reviews. I will, however, be sharing my exploration of vegetarian cooking and the cookbooks and websites I use to educate myself. I hope you enjoy it!

Lezlie

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Booking Through Thursday

How about a chance to play editor-in-chief? Fill in the blanks:

__________ would have been a much better book if ______________________.

This is a hard one for me, as I am a very forgiving reader. (Which may not seem like an honest statement when I post my next couple of reviews. . .) Even books I'm not particularly fond of, I can usually find something I liked about it. I have a hard time boldly stating a book is just plain bad, because deep down there is a little voice always yelling back, "If you think you can do a better job, there's the computer. . ." :-) Disclaimer -- This is just a personal hang-up of mine, and not a statement regarding anyone else's views or their right to state them.

That being said, this question isn't really asking me to rip on a book. Merely state how a specific book could have been improved for me personally. Right? In that case, here goes:

The Watchman by Robert Crais would have been a much better book if the girl Joe Pike had fallen for had been a stronger, more intelligent woman rather than (as I stated in a previous post) a Paris Hilton-like Hollywood idiot. Joe is such a fabulous character and it was really disappointing to see him so attracted to a shallow, self-absorbed person, even if she does improve just a hair at the end. All through the Elvis Cole novels (where he originated from), if I was able to picture him hooking up with anybody at all it would have been some amazing, larger than life woman. I see him with Lara Croft (Tomb Raider), not one of The Girls Next Door.

Books Please and John ~ What I have found to be so wonderful about the answers to this question was that so many people *did* have trouble with it. When I first read it, I thought, "Wow. This could be a rip-fest." It didn't turn out that way at all. I found out how many readers there are just like me who accept books and stories for what they are whether we personally liked them or not. And I like the respect most book bloggers show for other reader's choices. Much along the lines of, "One person's trash is another person's treasure." What a great commmunity this is to be a part of!

For me, the reason I'm often forgiving of books is that I can see that even if I don't like them, they might be perfect for a different audience. There is, however, a rare horrid book that really drives me nuts!

Trish ~ Thanks! You might want to check out the Elvis Cole series, too. You get to know who Joe is through them. The first one is "The Monkey's Raincoat" by Robert Crais.

Jennifer ~ I always have an overwhelming urge to go to the gym after watching "Tomb Raider". :-) (Angelina was just so incredibly cool in that.) And welcome to the community! I just discovered it all in January, so I'm still a newbie, too.

Short Works Read In 2009

This will include short stories, essays and poetry. I will mostly likely not post thoughts on every piece listed here, especially individual poems, but the ones I do write about will be linked. If you have any questions about any of them, feel free to ask! Every group of 10 short stories/essays will be counted as a single "book" in my final book count at the end of the year. However, none of these "books" will qualify for the initial 100 books in the 100+ Reading Challenge. I'm not yet sure how to count single poems. Let's see if I read enough of them to merit counting. If not, they're just good reading!

Short Stories:

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates (Read Online)"Hansel and Gretel" by The Brothers Grimm (Read Online)"A Report to an Academy" by Franz Kafka (Read Online)

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

In an effort to clean things up and make room for the massive list of books I will read this year (if all these Challenges have anything to say about it!), this list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die and my progress can now be found from the link on my sidebar under "Ongoing Reading Projects". Or just click here! :-)